


In Which Yuuri Enters into a Bargain

by OnceAndAlwaysEnglishMajor



Series: Victor's Moving Castle [3]
Category: Howl's Moving Castle - All Media Types, Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Christophe is Calcifer, Gen, YOI/Howl's Moving Castle AU, Yuuri is Sophie, but we don't know that yet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-10
Updated: 2017-03-10
Packaged: 2018-10-02 03:16:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10208258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnceAndAlwaysEnglishMajor/pseuds/OnceAndAlwaysEnglishMajor
Summary: Yuuri knows better, but he makes a deal with a fire demon anyway.





	

Yuuri woke up sometime in the middle of the night because someone was snoring loudly. He was most disgruntled to discover that he was the one making the noise. The fire had burned down in the hearth, leaving the room quite dark. Yuuri remembered uneasily that he had barged into a wizard’s castle and fallen asleep in his arm chair without so much a by-your-leave.

            “Let’s have some light, shall we?” he said out loud, putting several logs on the fire. The face-like shape appeared in the flames again.

            “Maybe the Wizard Victor enchants his wood, makes it burn all these colors,” Yuuri mused.  “Suppose I don’t leave before Victor gets back?” Yuuri said to himself, or the face in the flames, he couldn’t be sure which. “I’m sure a wizard would be able to lift this spell. But then, if the spell was broken, I’d be sure to have my soul sucked out, or my heart eaten in a trice.”

            “You don’t want your heart eaten?” the fire asked curiously. Yuuri was quite sure it was the fire that had spoken.

            “Of course I don’t want my heart eaten!” he said. “What a silly question! And what are you?” In the back of his mind, Yuuri wondered if he should be afraid, but decided that he was too old for such nonsense.

            “A fire demon,” the fireplace answered. “I’m bound to this hearth by a contract, and I can’t move from this spot,” the fire demon said with a whine. “And what exactly are you? I can tell you’re under some sort of a spell.”

            “You can tell! Does that mean you can take it off?” Yuuri asked excitedly. The fire demon was quite for a moment, well, as quiet as a fire ever is, as it studied Yuuri.

            “It’s a strong spell,” the demon finally said. “Is it one of JJ’s? It feels like the Witch of the Waste.”

            “It is,” Yuuri said.

            “And I detect two layers,” the fire demon continued. “You know you won’t be able to tell anyone unless they already know?” Yuuri nodded.

            “Yes, that’s what the Witch of the Waste said as well.”

            “I’ll have to study it,” the demon said.

            “Study it? But that would mean I would have to stay here…” Yuuri said hesitantly.

            “How about entering a bargain with me?” the demon asked. Yuuri didn’t quite like the cunning flicker in its eyes.

            “What kind of a bargain?” he asked.

            “I’ll break your spell if you break my contract,” the fire demon said. Yuuri hesitated to make a deal with a demon, especially one that looked so very evil, with those pointed purple teeth. Did any good ever come from making a deal with a demon?

            “If I’m not mistaken, that spell has shortened your life by at least 60 years,” the fireplace commented. Yuuri winced, that was something he had been trying to avoid thinking about.

            “Are you being quite honest with me?” he asked.

            “Not completely,” the fire said cheerfully. Yuuri accepted that.

            “And this contract you’re under, it’s with the wizard Victor?”

            “Of course,” the fire demon answered. “I’m fastened to this hearth and I provide all the magic for the castle. I’m being exploited. Victor is quite heartless, you know.” Yuuri was very much aware that Victor was heartless, there had been talk of very little else for months.

            “Aren’t you getting anything out of this bargain?” he asked.

            “Certainly,” replied the demon. “I wouldn’t have entered it if I wasn’t. But it’s not doing wither of us any good in the long run. Say you’ll break my contract, Yuuri.” Yuuri sighed. He knew better, but he couldn’t help but feel sympathy for the demon. It reminded him of taking care of the onsen while Minako was out. He was going to regret this.

            “Fine. I will break your contract as long as you break this spell.” The demon flared large in the fireplace.

            “Accepted! I will break your spell as soon as you break my contract!”

            “And how do I break your contract?” Yuuri asked. The demon cackled.

            “I can’t tell you, and neither can Victor! That’s part of the contract!” Yuuri huffed. If that’s how it was going to be, the demon could just satay in his hearth forever, for all Yuuri cared. He opened his mouth to say as much, but the fire demon interrupted, seeming to sense his intentions.

            “Don’t be hasty! If you just pay attention, I know you can figure out the terms.”

            “But how will I convince Victor to let me stay here?”

            “I’m sure we can come up with something,” the demon said craftily. It started muttering to itself, and Yuuri started to drift back to sleep, shooting down the demon’s increasingly far-fetched ideas with muttered words. Then the fire switched to singing softly, and Yuuri had the sneaking suspicion that he was being bewitched as well as beguiled, but the chair was comfy and he was tired, so he really couldn’t be bothered over much to care.


End file.
